Demise of a ‘useful thing’

Letter in The Globe and Mail, March 15, 1986

Your headline “Egad, Nothing’s Sacred Any More, Singer To Drop Sewing Machines” (Feb. 19) makes light of a story which is most unfunny and risks misleading the hurried reader about what is really happening. As the copy proceeds to tell us, Singer is getting out of sewing machines the better to devote its energies to the military business.

Mahatma Gandhi described the Singer sewing machine as “one of the few useful things ever in­vented.” Modern instruments of war, of the kind which Singer now produces, are in contrast utterly useless and sheer waste. They are either never used (though themselves using scarce resources which could be put to productive ends) or, if used, are capable of wasting the world.

The real story here is less how Singer is moving with the times and more how the times have done in Singer.

Mel Watkins
London, England

Star Wars and security

Ottawa

There is a good article, “Star Wars and Security”, by R.M. Bowman in the IEEETechnology & Society magazine, Dec., 1985, Vol. 4, 14, pp 2-13. The author, who is highly qualified, presents an analysis of its ineffectiveness on technical grounds, and its contribution to further instability.

- J. Scrimgeour
Washington, D.C.
(The SfP national office will copy the article for you upon request.)

Grateful

I’ve read Science for Peace with great interest and find it of tre­mendous value in offsetting the insane viewpoint of our Reagan admin­istration. How grateful I am (and everyone should be) to A.R. and the Board and all the members.

— E. Linson

Hawaiians Ask Canada Not To Shell Their Sacred Island

Maui, Hawaii

I want to reinforce my feelings against the frequent bombings of Kaho ‘olawe Island. It is bad enough that Kaho’olawe is bombed by the American military, but the continued military participation of several foreign RIMPAC nations embarrasses our Ameri­can government and angers many people of my county and throughout the state Please stop the bombing of Kaho’olawe by foreign governments and work to­ward an early cessation of the bomb­ing of Kaho’olawe by our own forces.

Letter to Pres. Reagan
by Hannibal Tavares, Mayor, County of Maui

Resource book

Dundas, Ontario

I’ve just read through your BULLETIN (march edition). What a great source of information. Congratulations.

Enclosed is a notice for your April edition. So far I’ve received responses from Science for Peace-Toronto, B.C. and Brock. If you could encourage your members in other chap­ters to respond before the end of April, there would be an even greater S4P presence in the finished book.

— Christine Peringer Peace Research Institute-Dundas

(CPRI-Dundas is compiling a resource book of Canadian peace group activities. If you have lost the question­naire you were sent, write freely a description of what you are doing and send it to CPRE-Dundas, 25 Dundana Ave., Dundas, Ont. L9H 4E5